MORE than one million people unknowingly suffer from an irregular heartbeat which can be an early indication of a stroke. TIM BRADY explains why you should always heed the body’s warning signs.

After their own ordeal James and Jenny Hutton advise doing basic pulse and heartbeat checks.

It might sound like the kind of advice you would normally get from an agony aunt rather than a qualified doctor but listening to your heart is exactly what medical experts are urging more people to do in the hope of preventing thousands of strokes every year in Britain.

An erratic and irregular heartbeat is an early warning sign that a life-threatening stroke may not be far away.

It is caused by a condition called atrial fibrillation (AF) where electrical activity in the heart goes haywire and sends the pulse into an abnormal rhythm.

Atrial fibrillation is thought to affect more than one million people in the UK, yet it is feared many sufferers are completely unaware they have the condition.

If it is detected in time, it can be stabilised with drugs and other treatments to correct the abnormal heartbeat. As a result, the risk of a stroke drops dramatically.

Left untreated, however, it can cause a clot which travels to the brain and cuts off its blood supply, in many cases leading to death or severe disability.

Yet simply taking your own pulse on a regular basis or getting a partner to put their ear to your chest is all it takes to pick up the early warning signs. “It would be great if more people checked their own pulse regularly,” says Dr Derick Todd, a consultant cardiologist at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.

“At the moment, hardly anyone realises what it may mean if they have an irregular heartbeat yet it’s so important it gets picked up in time.

“Without treatment, the risk of a stroke increases dramatically.”

The significance of do-it-yourself checks was highlighted recently when Derbyshire GP Becky Taylor noticed her husband’s heart was not beating regularly during a cuddle on the sofa. Dr Taylor, 42, rushed husband Steven, 44, to hospital where checks revealed he had an aortic aneurysm, a weakness in a major artery that could have killed him within minutes had it burst.

In 2008 a similar thing happened to James and Jenny Hutton, from Elston in Nottinghamshire.

Jenny, 54, a part-time administrator, was lying with her head on her husband’s chest as they watched television in bed one night when she suddenly noticed his heartbeat was completely irregular.

“It was all over the place,” says Jenny. “There would be a few beats and then a big gap before the next one. It was completely erratic.”

T hree weeks later James, 62, a surveyor specialising in renewable energy, collapsed with a stroke. Jenny says: “We had just come in from shopping and James went upstairs to get changed to do some gardening.

“I called up to him but he didn’t answer. When he still didn’t answer I had this feeling something was wrong and I dashed up the stairs.”

Jenny found James slumped over the banisters and unable to speak properly. She called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital.

“It was such a terrible shock,” says Jenny. “The right side of his face had drooped and he was talking gobbledegook. When the doctor at the hospital asked if James had any history of heart trouble I said no. He was always very fit and used to play a lot of rugby. Then I mentioned I had noticed his heartbeat was erratic.”

Doctors were able to determine that James’ stroke had been caused by atrial fibrillation. He spent nearly two weeks in hospital and over the following 18 months underwent a series of treatments designed to restore his heart to its normal rhythm.

Today he has made an excellent recovery, regaining much of the feeling and strength down his right side.

“I remember feeling really strange and stumbling towards the stairs,” says James. “I couldn’t talk properly so I tried to make a noise hoping Jenny would find me. I felt myself collapsing and that was the last thing I remember.

“I had never heard of atrial fibrillation. I wish that we had realised the significance of my abnormal heartbeat at the time. If we had I would have gone straight to my GP.”

AF develops when normal electrical activity in the upper chambers of the heart becomes completely chaotic. As a result the heart no longer beats in a regular fashion and blood which should get pumped round the body begins to “pool” inside the heart where it starts to thicken as time passes.

Some people get chest pain, dizziness and fatigue but others, like James, experience no symptoms at all.

Eventually a clot breaks away and travels up through the narrow blood vessels that feed the brain, causing a potentially fatal blockage.

Around one in 25 people over the age of 60 will develop the condition. It is more likely to affect those with high blood pressure or existing heart disease but has also been linked with thyroid disorders, pneumonia and even chest infections.

Sufferers are usually given the blood-thinner warfarin to stop clots forming and undergo a treatment called cardioversion, where the heart is “shocked” back into normal rhythm.

Jenny now urges everyone, not just those aged over 60, to check their pulse.

“One doctor told me about a patient he treated for atrial fibrillation who was just 35. James and I had a good laugh about his dodgy heart that night but unfortunately it wasn’t me that made it skip a beat.”